Tuesday 1 July 2014

terms-of-trade

America’s chief export, with the hearty support of an endless string of industrialists and fund managers (whose livelihoods are fully vested in keeping up appearances and maintaining the status quo) and legal and political framework of intimidation and opportunism that is in every way constituted to ensure the enduring favourable market conditions, has been war and strife for quite some time.  The trade has not been limited, of course, to proxy fighting but such business is easily over-shadowed by more direct lines of engagement in recent years.

With the situation in Ukraine once again pitching towards chaos after the lifting of a cease-fire, brokered by Russia but terminated by the sovereign government’s frustrations for not being able to defend itself from separatist—reportedly pro-Russian fighters, who were not abiding by the conditions of the stand-down.  This conflict is very opaque and tossing up more filters and lenses is not the most helpful activity, but one wonders if from the vantage point of the future, finding oneself in a bleaker dystopia than the one we are living in already, the context and understanding of American meddling might seem clearer.   Just as Eastern Europe had no voice for foreign policy nor internal affairs contrary to that of the Soviet Union during the Cold War, the bloc of the European Union and much of the rest of the world is held ransom by American dictates—with banking regulations, the media, asymmetrical trade treaties and political sympathies kept in check.
Ukraine’s request to lift the cease-fire, with the professed backing of America, was apparently promulgated by a resolution announced by the EU condemning Russian suppression of Ukrainian pro-Western factions.   Explicitly or implicitly, all of this looks to be orchestrated by America—including the sovereign government of Ukraine, whose opposition has just-cause to fear, considering who might have installed it and decrees its loyalties.  America’s vying for compassion is not to promote Democracy (not even, I think, in the face of Communism) but only hegemony, ensuring its interests and markets are protected and that competition is eliminated.  If Russia’s pulled asunder—over this tug-of-war pitch called Old and New Europe, then the US faces one less rival and dissenting voice.  What do you think?  Both sides have convincing spokespeople, I think.

Monday 30 June 2014

gypsy rose or pharmacological merits

AlterNet’s health and wellness desk sends well-timed reminder of how it’s not nice to fool Mother Nature—at any time, but the discussion of insecticides and repellents comes just as the mosquito and tick season is starting.  Tragically, many regions have suffered from mosquito-borne diseases for generations, and as humans encroach further into the last untouched patches of the wilds and more and more goods and people are shuffled around, a bug bite is feared as something more than an annoyance and tropical ailments are infiltrating populations once sheltered.
While the chemical cauldron may offer initial relief, there are a host of undesirable side-effects, among those that are known, for those who douse themselves with repellant—plus the balance of their internal-flora—and the ecology when manufactures run with the hint of nominal efficacy straight towards expanding into pesticides for crops, and waning returns.  The article explores the different mechanisms that make us appear attractive, lumbering targets to bites and stings and how a selection of natural products—like a suspension of lemon and eucalyptus essence, have a far greater and enduring success rate, without the dangers of pests building up immunity.  Lavender, despite claims that is is something emasculating for pre-pubescent boys, is a perfect substitute for deodorisers and air and fabric refreshers described as works of sorcery—though lavender, used as a condiment in powdered form until tomatoes and ketsup were discovered, and complementary aromas have positive psychotropic benefits, melaleuca (tea tree oil) is a much more effective antiseptic as a antimicrobial agent that is not a barn-burner, and essential oils seem better at prompting the body to metabolise what it needs than artificial cues, which are always more than a subtle hint. Growing acceptance of traditional and alternative medicines makes me wonder how the chemical business (as distinct from the science of chemistry) got a foothold in the first place—not that we ought to be faulted for trying to harness qualities found in Nature, but rather it just seems that what we make, that is—at least what’s going to interact with our bodies or environment eventually, or try to deliver is so fundamentally flawed and no matter how ingratiating or convincing, is ultimately barred from mingling with its biological counterpart.

รฆtherial or to catch a thief

Technologically savvy forensics experts in Germany (the broadcast is only in German) see great potential in exploiting inchoate but measurable aberrations in the environment—specifically the electromagnetic fields generated in any indoors area by electrical sockets.  The not completely hypothetical situation that researchers hope to stage and test the refinement of their gauges involves the story of a murder most-foul.  A woman has been killed, the experiment supposes, and in the absence of any physical evidence, damning or exonerating, the investigators have no way to eliminate or prosecute one of the suspects over the other, the woman’s husband or their neighbor.

Screams and a struggle, without corroboration, however do not go without an audible-footprint, at least indirectly—thanks to the unique and indelible cycling of electricity delivered over alternating current, there’s a time-stamp running in the background of any audio or video recording—that can pinpoint when and where the recording was made and if it was edited, no matter how cleverly or professionally done.  While Big Foot and UFOs are not necessarily in the vicinity of AC power sources, informants and confidential sources usually are and governments are hoping to be able to catch whistle-blowers in the act.  So much for crime-solving, but the poor woman’s death was not captured by any means—conventional at least, but supposing the attacker carried on his person some sort of electronic device, that electric hum would echo in a complimentary way to the method of exposing a snitch.  Though any change or disruption power would be infinitesimally small, one’s devices and electronic accessories can also be exploited, like seismographs, picking up any change in the electromagnet landscape.  Even though the mobile phone forgotten (given that that cell-phone is not already tattling or building an alibi in other ways) in the attacker’s pocket derives no charge from the electricity lurking in the wall socket, via induction, that external power source disrupts the phone’s internal current, in tiny but telling ways, and imprinting the signature of one’s whereabouts at any given time.  Atoms are judged to be perfectly elastic, capable of forever bouncing off one another without drag one experiences on the macroscopic level, but there are certain tell-tale stress-marks that have to do with the optimal, most efficient alignment of a wire in a circuit. While these are not measurable performance-metrics at the moment—that we know of, and exceedingly small it looks like such static might be of vital interest in the near future.

Sunday 29 June 2014

null-set or zero, my hero

Brain Pickings, using a speculative survey of the nature of nothing and how chaos, harnessed for opportunity can come of that void as a provocative point-of-departure for talking about mindfulness, aggrandizement and general overall well-being and resiliency.
Research shows that the placebo-effect (from the Latin, I will please) is not negated after all when subjects know that they are part of an experiment and are taking an inert little helper, and the essay goes on to address those obvious but escaping maxims of circumspection, curiosity, hope and a sense-of-purpose that are so fundamental and basic to the good life. I know, easy to say and it's the most difficult thing in the world not to be an existential brat and hold everything in perspective—despite numerous studies showing that these clinical zeroes, just thoughts, calm and collecting, and the real negating notion that a disclosed sugar-pill is still not too much of a let-down, it is the concept of zero (from the Arabic, it is empty) that is really novel and interesting when applied philosophically. Maybe all other achievements, progress is really not due to complicity, cooperation or incorporation but the ability to dismiss that direct chemical intervention as a placebo.  Though we can relate to nothing left or even indebtedness, nothing and nothing as a place-holder is a pretty abstract idea to grasp. It has developed significantly over the generations but I think a really concrete understanding of a void eludes us. What do you think? Can fulfillment or genuine needs be answered by a series of nothings?

carillon

The Local's Austrian edition has a curious dispatch from the city of Graz, regarding a compromise struck between community planners, the majority of the resident and the Muslim population of the city.

The Islam Cultural Centre of Graz, whose grounds house the mosque and minaret, the tower where the muezzin traditionally announces the call to prayer to the faithful, will signal prayer time—inaugurated with the start of Ramadan over the weekend, but with a beam of light, like a light-house and supplemented by sending an alert to the mobile phones of subscribers. Being the first mosque in the region (and also because it is the first and only, not all the twenty thousand estimated members of the community would be in ear-shot of the call), the cultural centre did not want to be overly intrusive and commissioned this silent invocation. What do you think about that? Is this a mutually acceptable solution? No one is proposing to mute church bells—which are much more pervasive—but what if someone did?